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Suu Kyi to travel to Europe after 24 years in Burma

Burma's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi will make her first trip abroad since 1988 when she visits Oslo in June, Norway's foreign ministry said Wednesday. Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize by the Norwegian Nobel Committee in 1991.

AFP - After years of house arrest, Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi plans to make a first trip abroad to Oslo in June to accept in person the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize she won for her peaceful struggle.

"She will give her Nobel lecture at Oslo City Hall," where the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony is held each year, the Nobel Institute's events manager Sigrid Langebrekke told AFP on Wednesday after Norway's foreign ministry announced the visit for which an exact date has yet to be set.

Myanmar officials said Wednesday the democracy activist, who has spent much of the past 22 years locked up by the junta under house arrest, had applied for a passport to travel but that it had not yet been granted.

Suu Kyi was awarded the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize "for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights", according to the citation, but she was never able to travel to Oslo to accept the award in person.

She has long said she would try to make her first trip abroad to Norway to express her appreciation for its support.

"The foreign minister and Aung San Suu Kyi spoke on the phone Sunday and discussed her visit to Oslo in June," he said.

"It will be" the opposition leader's first trip outside Myanmar since 1988, he said.

Myanmar's military seized power in 1962, ushering in almost half a century of repressive junta rule and isolation from the West.

Also known as Burma, the country has surprised observers with a series of reforms in the past year, and historic by-elections on April 1 saw Suu Kyi win her seat in parliament, which she is expected to take up on April 23.

Norway announced on Sunday that it had lifted economic sanctions against Myanmar following the recent reforms.

"It is time to lift the sanctions," Gahr Stoere announced in a statement.

"Recent developments in Myanmar demonstrate that the authorities are serious about reforms and that should be welcomed. What Myanmar needs now is contact with the rest of the world, economic development and international aid," he said.

A weapons embargo remains in place, he added.

Gahr Stoere had reiterated his invitation to Suu Kyi to visit the Scandinavian country when he called her on Sunday to inform her of Norway's decision on the sanctions.

"She confirmed that Norway was the first country she wanted to visit," Stoere told news agency NTB on Sunday.

During the rare periods Suu Kyi has not been held under house arrest, she has not dared travel abroad for fear of not being allowed to re-enter Myanmar.